World Food Day @ ESF

“Feed people not profits: challenging corporate control"

World Food Day (16th October) events @ ESF will champion the demands of smallholder farmers organisations and CSOs for international recognition of the right to Food Sovereignty. They will challenge WTO and TNC dominance of the global food system that feeds corporations not people. See www.ukabc.org.

World Food Day is the time to remember that:

· 840 million people go to bed hungry each night in a world with 1.5 billion overfed people that spends $900 billion a year on weapons and war.
· 1 European farm disappears every minute of every day
· Unfair trade and dumping of surplus food impoverishes small-scale food producers throughout the world
· 10% of the population owns 90% of the fertile land in Brazil
· 4 supermarket chains control 75% of the food market in the UK
· 95% of the world’s crop varieties, developed by farmers, have disappeared since the advent of industrial agriculture
· 75% of maize seed sales controlled by 4 Trans National Corporations
· FAO and other UN agencies are now promoting GM crops that are irrelevant to ending hunger and poverty.


Food sovereignty policies are needed now to ensure that 6.5 billion people are fed today and 9 billion tomorrow. These policies will:

· regulate international trade in favour of local markets, farmers and consumers;
· implement the fundamental Right to Food for all peoples and ensure Farmers’ Rights;
· ensure equitable access to land, water, GM-free seeds, livestock breeds and agricultural biodiversity for threatened farmers and landless families;
· promote sustainable, GM-free, localised food production and agroecology.

Come debate the issues, meet-up and organise on: food sovereignty + land rights + Farmers' Rights + agricultural biodiversity + unfair trade rules + corporate control + obesity + famine + FAO pushing GM crops for the poor + WTO + intellectual property rights and seed control + and what we must do…

PROGRAMME on World FOOD DAY

1 Plenary, 3 Seminars and 4 Workshops will address these issues and more.

Alexandra Palace

11:30am Plenary: Politics on Your Plate

9:00am CAP Seminar

4:30pm Food Sovereignty Seminar

7:00pm Land Rights Seminar

Bloomsbury

11:30am Nanotechnology Workshop

2:00pm Resisting Corporate Monopolies Workshop

2:00pm CORE Workshop

7:00pm Boycott Nestlé Workshop

Updated Details, Venues, Speaker on www.ukabc.org